David Bowie - The Next Day

Do yoi think it's great? Your blog post sounded meh.

I'm not screaming masterpiece from the rooftops, but Eyeball Kicks just summed up kinda what I take from it. The few times I've played it I've gone between, "Hmm, okayish" to "No, wait, there is something here" and a little back again.

Still sounds like "The Pretty Things Are Going to Sleep"

So according to his official page...

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19225_10151174237357665_1508078948_n.jpg

Here's another treat from Jimmy King...an exclusive photograph of David Bowie taken while having lunch at a Japanese restaurant yesterday.

Now that is the look of a man at peace with himself having just heard about some of the reaction to yesterday's announcements...possibly.

Kinda hope this Andy Capp phase of his keeps going.

strike a light guv, it's 'im from mary pawpins

Bowie (thinks) "Damn, those pisstakers from ILX are doing a pre-covers album..."

Dude looking fucking great. I like this. I hope the album is quiet, considered, statesman-like. I have too high hopes. Oh god.

hours and Heathen were quiet and statesman-like, no?

xp yeah i was just saying to my gf that his superimposed face in that video finally has him looking his actual fucking age, but it must have been an illusion. i work w/ dudes hovering around 40 looking worse off than that. what is his secret.

the song is solid.

whose is the other face in the video?

Enjoying this. Production is a bit blah, but there IS something affecting about the song.

Artists reusing albums covers (back cover version):

http://phobos.express.ge/ZoneG/20/mp3//Duran_1997_Medazzaland/.photo/Duran%20Duran%20-%20Medazzaland%20-%20Back.jpg

http://www.phiiliip.com/iciclesa1.gif

Can't find a full picture, and i've never actually gotten this album, but the cover for Phiiliip's 2000 CD Icicles and Spike Sculptures appears to be the Beatles "White Album" w the Beatles crossed out and Philip written in.

Effecting enough to make ya forget how to spell effecting!

Still think the single fades out and ends too quickly - was waiting for an epic (or at least traditional) turn at the end but was left hanging. Production sounds terrific - kinda expecting the album to sound like a Gilmour or Ferry solo album. Not such a bad thing either.

I thought for sure the other head in the video was Bjork's.

http://filmmakermagazine.com/62222-david-bowie-returns-with-a-new-single-and-a-tony-oursler-video/

Video director's wife, apparently.

Man, what a beautiful vocal performance.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BAOVkeoCYAEgdMF.jpg

Republica?

fuck yeah dropkick murphys consecutive sundays

or someday i suppose

"David Bryne".

"AlanaGeorge"

"Fisherspooner"

"Totally Enourmous Extinct Dinosaurs"... I'll stop now.

"Band That Plays While You Go And Queue Up To Buy Beer"

"Is this an old poster?"

Well, put it this way: "La Roux" means it's not more than five years ago, and "Adam Ant" tells me it must be this year...

This has been doing the rounds on Twitter but is pretty wtf:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/01/09/david-bowie/

nice Pete Paphides response to the above (and others)
http://hiddentracks.org/

Okay, we're getting more info here:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/earl-slick-david-bowie-new-album-interview/

‘The Next Day’ also features contributions from an impressive lineup of musicians in addition to Slick, including familiar Bowie collaborators such as drummers Sterling Campbell and Zachary Alford, guitarists Gerry Leonard and David Torn, and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey. Tony Visconti, who also produced ‘The Next Day,’ contributes bass, as does Tony Levin, who’s known for his work with Peter Gabriel.

Some interesting peek behind the curtain stuff here:

--

What was your methodology when you were adding your music? How did you motivate the performance you wanted to get? How much direction did you get?

You know, we’ve been doing this since day one, and what we’ll do is, we’ll sit down and we’ll listen to the stuff. And he’ll ask me how it hits me — how does this hit you, how does that hit you? Or he’ll go, “This one you gotta be on.” And we’ll sit down, we’ll listen to the song — well, we’ll sit in the control room with a couple of acoustic guitars and then we just bang ideas around. I’ll go, “What do you think about this?” He goes, “What do you think about that?” It’s not like taking direction as a session player would take direction, because that’s why I don’t do sessions—cause I can’t take direction. [Laughs.]

What he’s done since day one — and still continues to do — is, he knows exactly what it is that I bring to the table, and that’s what he wants. He doesn’t want me to sound like anybody but me. So we just sit there and we just hash through ideas until something hits one of us, and then we record it. It’s real casual — you know, you throw a couple cups of coffee on the table and you pick up a few guitars and we listen through some tracks. And he already knows pretty much what he wants me on, but then I’ll say, “Well, let me play you these and see if these hit you. If they do, let’s work out some parts.” It’s really casual. And that’s why it gets done quickly and efficiently, because it’s all done organically.

The music I really like tends to be the more spontaneous music — not very meticulous. There’s a time and a place for that, but it can sound so airless and stuffy.

It’s really funny, as sophisticated as some of his records sound, he’s not anal about this stuff. And neither am I, and that’s why we get along so well. I’ll do a take that’s really not perfect, but it is perfect, because it feels great. Therein lies the perfection: It lies in what it feels like and what it does to you emotionally, not the exact notes. I can play a note that’s a little bit on the outside — like, “What the hell was that?” — and then we listen back to it and we go, “Wow, that felt really good.” And we just leave it alone. Whereas some guys will sit there and they’ll try to fix a weird note. Those weird notes, to me, is what really makes it happen. Of course—listen to the Stones. Keith Richards is my hero. In my mind, he’s the best guitar player ever. And Keith’s stuff has definitely got some urgency to it, and it’s definitely not perfect. But boy, when it comes to feel, it doesn’t get any more perfect than Keith.

I think the term is “loose.”

It is — it’s loose, and it’s emotional. That’s what it is. And that’s, to me, what rock and roll is supposed to be about. If you want perfection, go see a symphony orchestra.

Here's my take on the video after watching and listening a few times (I find this song pretty moving the more I listen. I love the shakiness in his voice and those somber chords.): Oursler set Bowie up to watch footage of Berlin as he lipsynched the lyrics. Bowie's face is simultaneously projected onto the doll. Oursler's wife is listening to the song (in a seperate room?) and her face, as she listens, is also projected onto the doll. Maybe?

^Oh I love that.

Oursler set Bowie up to watch footage of Berlin as he lipsynched the lyrics. Bowie's face is simultaneously projected onto the doll. Oursler's wife is listening to the song (in a seperate room?) and her face, as she listens, is also projected onto the doll. Maybe?

Bet you're right. The concept improves the video, so I'll go with it.

I'm sorry. Much as I love Bowie, I really don't enjoy this song at all. The whole thing sounds so lifeless. The production is straight from the Big Book of AOR Ballads (c) 1992. The songwriting is flat, uninspired, lacking in any sort of dynamism. It doesn't come close to achieving the stately mood it's trying to go for, plodding along like a tired dirge, barely lifting its head above the mire of pedestrian chord choices and workaday key changes. Bowie can be forgiven for not having the voice he used to, but rather than adapting and altering his vocal technique to suit his new range (like some other singers of his age), he just does the default Bowie voice albeit in a flatter, less risky way. I know we're all excited about his return, and fair play to the man, but this is more "That's Why God Made The Radio" than "Bish Bosch" or "American Recordings" - a dim impression of Bowie's previous work, with all the life sucked out of it.

Also when I first saw the video, I assumed it was a homemade fan vid. I couldn't believe it was the real thing.

Don't be sorry: to each his own, also with regards to the interpretation of a vocal performance. But this:

adapting and altering his vocal technique to suit his new range (like some other singers of his age), he just does the default Bowie voice albeit in a flatter, less risky way

Harry Hill's entire career (minus badgers and Burt Kwouk) summarised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIyZap4StYg

Tony Viaconti interview. Lefsetz = "old fart". http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-bowie-producer-new-album-411233

Visconti, even

"We would catch up on the latest British comedy -- Ricky Gervais, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, Harry and Paul."

There's a lot of that kind of thing in there.

xxxp the whole of Visconti's last answer is worth quoting:

"Well, he used to be cutting-edge but he's an old jerk now. He is so out of touch with what people want. This album is already No. 1 in 20 countries and it hasn't even been released yet, so that's evidence that the album is the way to go. It might be not be for everybody because, honestly, people don't write enough good material to fill an album anymore. So Lefsetz is a complete asshole. At one time, a few years ago, he had his day in the sun but now he is basically an old fart and I am bored with what he says."

quality pwnage

Tony Visconti says [28 minutes ago near New York, NY]
Band members on The Next Day: Zachary Alford, Sterling Campbell, Gail Ann Dorsey, Tony Levin, Gerry Leonard, David Torn, Earl Slick, David Bowie, Henry Hey, Steve Elson, Janice Pendarvis, Alex Alexander, Antoine Silverman (and his string quartet) and me. We are no longer 'gagged.' ;)

Tony Visconti says:
Where Are We Now? Musicians: David Bowie, piano/strings, Zachary Alford, drums, Tony Levin, bass, Gerry Leonard, guitar, Henry Hey, additional piano, me keyboard strings. Small group making a big sound.

As for Bowie, Tony Visconti seems confident that The Next Day is a new beginning rather than simply one last hurrah. They ended up recording 29 songs, he says, and even on the deluxe edition of the album, there are only 17 tracks. "We have tracks left over that are really great, that just didn't fit with this batch, so I know we have the makings of another album. And I know he wants to keep recording. I'm not sure when, but I think he'll be back in the studio later this year."

Milk and Honey....It even shares Earl Slick and Tony Levin.

Wasn't this fellow latterly of this parish?

Well there ya go!

I love it when people describe music as "material" or even better "product"
It actually gives me chills